I'm just tapped out right now.
It seems like the world is on fire even here in publishing.
I can't believe I'm nostaligic for March, when I was ONLY worried about Covid!
I have to quit thinking "the worst will be over soon" cause that appears to be delusional.
This is my friend Cooper.
He and I have the same idea about the state of the world:
I know I owe you contest results too..sorry I've been a laggard.
31 comments:
Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs' Rule 6: Never say you’re sorry. It's a sign of weakness.
It's 4 am and I am commenting, soooo pretty much agree with Cooper (and you).
Please don't stress about the contest results. There is too much angst out there and the contests are just fun and games that you generously offer to us.
Sat staring at the cursor waiting for a few more words to appear, but is seems these are it for the day.
Hope they were enough.
I've always found it helpful to learn others are struggling too, to know it's not just me. In a "Circle of Practice" clergy group, we spoke about the vacillation of our energy for our tasks. I've always been a hopeful person with dreams and ideas for our future as a species, but the energy level to bring any action to fruition...ha! Here one minute, gone the next.
Don't be too hard on yourself, Janet. And other Reiders, too. It's a gobsmacking time, a hinge in history (though I've only read Thomas Cahill's earlier books about the Irish and the Jews so maybe I'm applying that phrase wrong).
Thank you, Fearless Reider, for your comment yesterday. Labeling systemic racism as "baked in" grabbed me as a great analogy. (I don't think it's a metaphor?)
I feel like "the worst" is a constantly shifting goalpost. Some days things seem improved (depending on the things you pay attention to) and other days, they are not. Right now, we've started curbside for the library, and our patrons have been very happy to hear from us again!
You are not alone. We are all feeling it. It's impossible to plan for anything. Take care. Please be safe.
How about a terrible limerick to offer some cheer...?
Once entered a contest full of pluck,
Deep down hoping my entry didn’t suck.
But I used “your” instead of “you’re,”
And typed “prue” instead of “pure.”
Too late to fix them, I yelled “F**K!!!”
Wait, was I filled with pluck...or the contest?
Laggard??? You a laggard???
I watched Polar Express and The Grinch all day yesterday with a just-turned 4 year old.
Merry Christmas
Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs?
I'm not even interested in finding out who this person is - who says this.
What an expressive pic of Cooper. I feel ya, little guy. Every time I glance at Twitter.
C. Dan Castro, exactly what I wanted to hear this morning. Thank you for the chuckle.
2Ns, Merry Christmas to you and the 4yo!
In case anyone else wants to bury themselves in the study of creative art, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel (Jessica Brody) is an excellent resource for the 'formulas' of stories. For anyone who likes lists, things spelled out --math? anatomy? I dunno--it is so helpful. Fellow Reefer NLiu recommended it to me and I can't say enough good things about it.
Thinking of everyone here.
Go to my FB page... Horses! Happy horses running.
Hugs.
Our Miss Duchess has become a very needy cat since the world fell in. She turned into a bed cat, something that used to only happen for our three days of winter.
The Scruluce kitty has also lost another screw.
I am wondering if my business is dead forever or just for a while.
I have to wonder where the money for change will come from. It will cost a lot because everyone who will be affected will study it until, at least, the end of fall (the season).
Time to finish another COVID DIVERSION PROJECT so I can turn the brain off.
Janet:
I recommend you say, "I will never get to those contest results." We will all be fine. There are bigger issues to deal with at the moment.
All:
I heard about "Save the Cat Writes a Novel" here on the Reef. It is an eye-opening resource, explaining writing concepts in a way my brain could finally comprehend and assimilate them. Highly recommended.
Yeah, I concur... my get up and go, got up and left.
I think you get a mulligan on the contest. It was a fun exercise, but you should exorcise the results. We've all missed a contest once in a while. Let it go. This is your turn to take a pass on it.
Be well, stay strong, and watch for first responders, they are the light in the darkness.
Cheers?
Katja, I guess you don't watch NCIS, because you'd recognize the character named Agent Gibbs who has numerous 'rules.'
And twitter publishing madness doesn’t help. I’m so glad we find kindness here.
Take care of yourself. Seriously, you need to order in and watch No Good Deed. It’s amazing.
Brenda
:( Janet, I want to send you hugs but Don't Hug The Shark is obviously a candinal rule here and also I quite like my head attached to my body.
Can we get you anything? A kitten? Sushi? A swimming pool filled with the tears of your minions?
Also, please stop worrying about the contest results! We should learn to deal with suspense anyway, in order to bolster us against all those Normans we'll surely receive. See? You're doing us a favour.
Lennon Faris and Jenn Griffin and basically everyone: Save the Cat! Writes a Novel is well worth the money, if you have any to spare right now for writerly pursuits. Also the front cover has a cat on it. Nothing with a cat on the front can be bad.
Fellow Reiders, what do you do to restore yourself when you can't, or don't want to, stay lying face down at rock bottom?
I make tea, with a timer on so I don't boil the kettle dry. Drink a glass of water while it boils, and a other while it steeps. Then I take the tea outside, breathe fresh air and--if possible--dig my toes in the dirt. Stand, breathe, drink, notice, breathe. When the tea is gone and the sparrows are no longer interesting, I sit down and make a list.
What is the best, most obvious thing I can do right now to make things better? is the question an ethics professor taught me to ask. (Usually it's open the windows and do the dishes,take something OFF the to-do list, or knock out a small ugly task that is standing in the way of other things.) And because I have ADD, my clarity requires steps rather than tasks on the list, gentle self-talk, and more tea.
Here in Russia, it doesn't get better either. And now it probably won't until 2036. Of course, a lot of people are against the amendments, and the recent anti-LGBTQ video to promote one of them has stirred outrage. Yet, polls and day-to-day experiences say this is probably not how the majority feels.
Each time I read the news I feel like I inhale something putrid that's slowly suffocating me.
I hope one day I'll be able to escape.
Agreeing with others that Save the Cat! is great. Tore through it about two months back. Very insightful.
I'm now starting on revision, and wondering everyone's favorite approaches. My first pass is currently just focused on catching major detail and plot inconsistencies, but I'd love to hear advice or tips you all use.
The world has gone mad, but today is my birthday, there is a Downton Abbey marathon on (I have yet to see them in order) and I have the day off so my theme for today is relax and enjoy.
Happy Thursday, Everyone!
Save the Cat fans: If you subscribe to STC for structure and writing, then you'll probably love The Story Grid for editing.
Be warned. Editing is hard, and The Story Grid is hard work. But oh so worth it. It's developed by Shawn Coyne, who was an editor for a couple decades. I bet he crossed paths with Janet on occasion.
Anyway, I could go on, I often do, but I better stop before I go over one-hundred
Well, my book launched on June 1, which means it got sidelined by both COVID and protest news. So I just want to look at puppies and kittens now.
Brigid, I find that an activity involving hand-eye-brain coordination works. Doing coloring books, cutting out images from magazines and pasting/tacking them on a vision board, or sketching my novel characters onto paper.
Steve, have fun with revisions. This is where you meet your writer self in a dark alley. My approach (not saying I execute it well) is whatever the word count per scene after the darlings have been killed, trim it further by 30%.
Cynthia, Happy Birthday!
And yes, yes, yes to Save The Cat!
C.H.Reaver Yikes! Yes, Russia is scary. I hope you can escape someday too.
Theresa Also yikes!
Cynthia Happy birthday!
I try to just breathe through every day. I'm very thankful that my book (about an NYPD undercover detective) is coming out a year from now and I hope desperately that by then TV shows, films, and books about cops will no longer be canceled.
I have a couple of people who depend on me and right now that gives me purpose in life.
Tea helps. Chocolate helps. A chat with a friend helps.
Hang in there Janet and Reiders.
Sorry to hear you're feeling overwhelmed, Janet. Or is it just whelmed? I happened across "whelming" in a hymn last week, looked it up, and it seems to mean the same as overwhelming, just with less drama.
I thought that long-anticipated trip to the laundry-mat might lift your spirits. For me, getting dirt on my hands seems to help. Maybe if you have a sunny window, you could plant a couple of scarlett runner beans in a pot with a bamboo pole to climb. There's something very satisfying in watching a vine crawl up a pole.
Hang in there, Janet and fellow Reiders! I love that question from your ethics professor, Brigid. Manual tasks always help me calm down and focus. My grandmother's sewing machine tethers me to something like sanity right now. Churning out masks makes me feel like I'm doing something noble when I'm really just procrastinating on starting my revisions. As Grandma Virginia's trusty ancient Kenmore chugs along, I think about the hardship and turmoil she faced in her lifetime and how she met everything with aplomb and a prodigious ability to cuss. She would find much to say about 2020.
Happy birthday, Cynthia McC ! May your next one happen in less complicated times.
I'm sorry to hear that, Janet. I do hope things will improve soon.
Janet, I hear you. Fiction has always been my white noise, my favorite guilty pleasure, but since March I've purchased 51 books and read exactly 2. I think my mind is locked down and rusted shut. Oddly enough, the thing that has helped the most is cranking up Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto in C Major (otherwise known as the soundtrack from Kramer vs Kramer.) Cheers me up every time.
Yes, I agree, scrap the contest results. Taking one thing off your over-full plate is the least we can do for you. It'll go down in history as the missing contest, a victim of circumstance, like Charlie on the MTA:
But did it ever return?
No, it never returned and its fate is still unlearned
(Poor old Reiders)
It may elide forever 'neath the current mayhem
It's the contest that never returned.
With apologies to The Kinston Trio.
Hang in there, everyone. Stay safe and be strong.
Ooops, that should be The Kingston Trio. But you knew that.
Happy Birthday, Cynthia, fellow Gemini!
I love Cooper.
The state this planet is in, is all a bit overwhelming. It's very difficult to focus on necessary tasks, but I progress, nevertheless, at a snail's pace. Something is better than nothing. I try to be grateful for what I do have. TV, kitties, animal videos, chocolate (balanced with yoga and moderate exercise) offer distraction, and lessen the fear and heartbreak.
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